City Hall is again reaching into Fresno schools. This time, council members are looking for ways to encourage more students to enroll in colleges or develop skills that will help them start rewarding careers.

Mayor Alan Autry has long eyed an improved Fresno Unified School District as key to revitalizing the city. He lobbied for a change in the way school board members are selected and said he'd like to have the district broken into smaller, more efficient pieces.

Now the City Council is offering its help.

The council voted Tuesday to send employees to all school districts and private high schools in Fresno to help develop a plan to increase by 25% the number of students who pursue higher education.

Council Members Brian Calhoun and Henry T. Perea proposed the plan, and Council Member Tom Boyajian cast the lone dissenting vote.

"I think our job is to get jobs for these kids," said Boyajian, adding that when City Hall moves into the education arena it's "almost like a slap in the face" to local schools.

Rather than "meddling in education," Boyajian said, city leaders should work harder to create high-paying jobs, clean the air and hem in urban sprawl so Fresno's most educated natives will stay in the area.

In their proposal, however, Calhoun and Perea said promoting higher education is important to the entire city because:

Good jobs often require a postsecondary education and it is increasingly difficult to rise into the ranks of the middle class without it.

College graduates earn more money and are less likely to receive public assistance. They also are typically more healthy and more likely to vote and participate in civil affairs, Calhoun and Perea said.

Those with a postsecondary education also are less likely to become criminals, they added.

Calhoun, a Fresno City College instructor, pointed to statistics culled from the nonprofit group The Campaign for College Opportunity as proof the area lags behind the rest of the state in the number of students who continue their educations after high school.

According to the nonprofit group, about half of the state's high school graduates enroll in college but only 37% of high school graduates from Fresno, Kern, Inyo, Kings, Tulare and Fresno counties make the same jump. About 35% of young adults in California, ages 18 to 24, are enrolled in college while that number is 25% for this region. The statistics are based on information gathered from the 2000 census.

To increase college enrollment among local students, Calhoun and Perea said, a commission might need to work with students, parents, teachers and national experts to come up with a plan. The council members asked city staffers to give a report on their progress by May.

"Not in any way are we telling the K-12 school system what to do, but we'd like to find out what we can do to encourage young graduates," Calhoun said. "This is a friendly way of reaching out ... to various schools to ask, 'What can this city and this City Council do to help you?' "

Council Members Jerry Duncan, Cynthia Sterling and Mike Dages said vocational education opportunities, in addition to the promotion of college education, will be vital to helping local students land good jobs in the area.

Carol Gaab Hansen, principal of Duncan Polytechnical High School in Fresno, said her school's emphasis on specific careers has helped send 85% of its students to colleges.

The high school, a magnet campus through Fresno Unified, said students are directed into health, agricultural, industrial technology or business careers. Students spend nine hours a week at job sites learning from professionals.

"They understand, truly, that they need to make that next step to college to achieve their goals," Hansen said of her students, 91% of whom qualify for free or reduced lunches.

John Marinovich, Fresno Unified's assistant superintendent in charge of secondary education, said the school district could do a better job of motivating its students to continue their educations after high school.

"No doubt we can do better," said Marinovich, who hadn't heard of the council's plan to help. "We know how, and have demonstrated we know how, to teach the motivated student and the student who is English only and comes from a middle-class background and above.

"We need to get better, like many urban districts, in teaching all students, including those who don't speak English and come from poverty."

But Marinovich added that many factors that typically decrease college enrollment rates are out of the school district's control, including: poverty, unemployment and the availability of affordable housing and health care.

He said educators, parents and relatives must talk early and often to children about the importance of college.

"Too many think college is automatically out of their reach because of finances," said Marinovich, a former principal at Fresno and Sunnyside high schools. "And we need to expose kids to all the financial aid opportunities."

Fresno Unified's high schools host events that educate parents about financial aid for higher education and each campus has a career center. But Marinovich said budget cuts have forced the school district to reduce the number of high school counselors by 25%.

Autry has called the public education system "systematically broken." He's said school districts can't function in a system that: doesn't let them contract out maintenance work to the lowest bidder; doesn't let them move experienced teachers to schools with the most needy students; has a tenure system that protects inept teachers; and is funded by a state with budget deficits.

Autry supports legislation being formulated by Fresno County schools Superintendent Pete Mehas and state Assembly Member Juan Arambula, D-Fresno, to give county superintendents more power to step in when schools are failing financially or academically.

He also wants to be able to appoint school board members or allow a similarly local, elected official to have ultimate control and be held accountable.

Perea thanked the mayor Tuesday for making education a priority in City Hall and said: "It sounds like we're all on the same page here."

The reporter can be reached at mleedy@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6208.